Posted by Jayy on May 23, 2009, at 10:06:27
In reply to Re: Ever Been In An 'Intensive Outpatient Program'??, posted by softheprairie on May 23, 2009, at 5:33:42
> I was highly disappointed in both inpatient hospitalization and the day hospitalization programs in terms of time with actual one-on-one therapy (you know, someone with an actual graduate degree and license, not a para or tech, and *in private*) and time with prescribers. I soon tried another local alternative, which is "residential" and run by the locally-designated communty mental health center, which was a worse farce, (I could hardly believe it) and not hospitalization at all, but a "hospital alternative," that is not run on the medical model, but supposedly on the psycho-social model, and which featured zero individual therapy from a professional (for me, at least) and zero prescribers on-site, but was mainly a temorary holding site.
>
> Even with all that said, you could give it a try for a day or two, and if it's too foul you can stop.And thanks to you too Prairie,
That all sounds very horrible, honestly. What you explained sounds very similar to what I did. I'm definitely going to try it, I have no other choice at this point.But what did you end up doing after those experiences? Were you able to find any decent help at a better place? I hope so. Isn't it just so devastating and so disappointing and frustrating to need actual help and yet get essentially nothing???
The way the woman described it does sound very similar to what you've explained and I now feel even more convinced that I was lied to and deceived just to get me into the program.
Maybe they get paid extra $$ since they can milk every dime out out of medicaid& medicare? Maybe they need people in their program to meet a certain quota? I really don't know.
What I do know is that on Wed 5/20 I saw the Psychiatrist there and he said it would not be beneficial for me to see him once a month and see a talk therapist/psychologist (if I was lucky to get a psychologist) only weekly and so forth and so on:
He asked when my last physical was (ahhh, never) so he tells me that they'll do all of that at the program place too... check my blood to see if there's a thyroid problem, etc...
It all sounded too good to be true, and then this woman tells me that I won't be seen for any individual therapy and just the occasional short Psychiatric visit.
I feel very deceived and went from very excited and hopeful after talking the the P Doc to extreme disappointment after talking to the program woman.
I don't even know what she is... she may have said social worker but I don't recall.
When and where does the medication come in??
I have suspected I was "Bipolar 2" for several years, so then this new guy just told me he thinks that's indeed what I am (without me even mentioning it first) so I was thrilled to see that he was capable of noticing it.I'm already almost furious at the thought of going to this place and sitting there in major anxiety, sweating to death, and having some woman conduct 20-25 people in some 5 hour long babble session.
I believe she said each person gets an entire 10 whole minutes to talk about themselves and then the rest of the people discuss.
Oh great... so yes, I'll perhaps be able relate to a bunch of other patients in certain ways...
But again, that does me no good in "fixing" my severe mental issues that I need individual attention for.And I'm supposed to go there without even being properly medicated first?? I explained to the P Doc that I have major rage issues... I fear I will end up blowing up at someone there if it turns out to be quite a farce, like you said yours was.
She also said that no (or most) private therapists would agree to see a patient more than once a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT????????????????????????????
Please... I've never heard of such nonsense. If you have the $$ they'll see you all week.I'm a huge Howard Stern fan, listen to him daily and know that he's been seeing his shrink 3x a week for years.
You really do get what you pay for (or what you can't afford to pay for).
poster:Jayy
thread:897113
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090515/msgs/897234.html